Everyone should have heard of this book by now. It's about the crew team that won the gold medal in the Berlin Olympics.
This is really perfect from a non-fiction standpoint. We have poverty and hard work - Joe, our focus, is very poor and works insanely hard just to afford food.
We have Hitler's Germany - always a winner if you want to sell books.
We have Americans triumphing on an international stage, "sticking it to Hitler," as it were. Surefire winner there.
We have "men, patriots! united in harmony, working as one towards a common goal" etc. Very moving.
I have to say Brown is a great author. The book is readable and interesting. I love "struggling to survive in poverty," I love "working physically very hard in order to be a super-athlete" and, of course, I love learning about history. So all those things worked in the book's favor.
However, crew racing bores me. I'm sorry, Brown did his best to make the races exciting, but after reading about twenty of them I was done. Actually I was done after the first two. By the second half of the book I found myself drifting when the "boys" were in an actual race. There's only so many ways you can describe rowing and pulling ahead of your opponents.
This is probably not a drawback to most people. I'm not a sport-viewer. I watch the Super Bowl once a year and that's it.
And that is really the only negative thing I have to say about this book.
...
Now, these aren't "negatives" exactly - and in no way affected the books rating, but I did notice some things about Brown's writing that I found quite funny.
ONE: He tends to be a bit cheesy and overdramatic. However, I realize that adds when you are writing non-fiction. No one wants dry non-fiction. No one wants to be bored. So this actually could be seen as a plus.
TWO: Hilariously, Brown mentions what women think of each man he introduces. Let me give you some examples.
He had a strong jawline, fine, regular features, gray eyes verging into blue, and he drew covert glances from many of the young women sitting on the grass.
LOL Too funny. I thought this was just an anomaly - Brown wanted to make sure readers knew that our star - Joe - was HANDSOME. Okay. I can understand that. But then, 13 pages later:
Women found him attractive.
Okay, okay, we get it. Women were apparently gaga over him. Great. Then we meet Shorty Hunt.
He was also quite good-looking, with wavy dark hair. People liked to compare him to Cesar Romero. He was six foot three as a freshman, and his fellow students promptly dubbed him Shorty. He'd use the name for the rest of his life. He was something of a fashion plate, always well dressed and forever drawing the eyes of young women around him, though he did not seem to have a steady girl.
This amused me to no end. "Hey," I'd say to my friend. "Brown says this guy is ATTRACTIVE."
"Yeah," my friend would snappily retort. "How many women were giving this one covetous glances? FIVE women gave Joe the eye as he strolled across campus, but only THREE women checked this one out!"
Then we'd laugh and laugh.
Ah, good times.
ANYWAY. I found it highly amusing. There's many pictures of the "boys" in the book - even one where they're all shirtless. I'm sure you can do your own judging of if they are cuties or not. ;)
THREE: Maybe it was just me, but there was a strange sexual undertone in Brown's writing. NOT in relation to the "boys" or even any humans. Mainly when he was describing stuff. Here are some examples:
Brown talking about the pain of rowing:
It's not a question of whether you will hurt, or of how much you will hurt; it's a question of what you will do, and how well you will do it, while pain has her wanton way with you.
When I read this I was like o.O I had to re-read it to make sure I was seeing things correctly. Pain has her wanton way with you? Really? Wow.
Here's Brown discussing Joe's drive to Montana:
He made it over the pass and began to drop down through dry ponderosa pine forests to the apple and cherry orchards of Wenatchee, where magpies, black and white, flashed among the cherry trees, seeking ripe, red plunder.
LOL o.O
Every time this happened I had a good laugh. It didn't happen super-frequently, which was good, because then whenever I came upon a fresh one I was startled into laughter again.
Of course, these are just little personal notes and they didn't affect my rating at all.
...
Tl;dr - This is good non-fiction. Juicy, fast-paced, and character driven. A great combination of a character study and exciting history. I can see why this book is very popular. The only drawback for me would be the actual racing - not Brown's fault, he does a stellar job of making crew sound exciting, but I'm just not very interested, despite his best efforts.
I'd recommend this if you are looking for a non-fiction romp.
P.S. Not available in Spanish. >.< I'm upset.